The Payoff for Planning Now

If you’d really like to maximize your return on investment, planning end-of-year fundraising efforts in August can help ensure you don’t leave potential donations on the table.

Fundraising 101, right? But just as for-profit retailers often find themselves scrambling right before the annual Black Friday sales, many nonprofits end up making year-end fundraising plans at the 11th hour, with no time to give their best effort.

NonProfitPRO suggests getting a head start on your year-end fundraising strategy by incorporating these tried-but-true tips:

A standard #10 white window envelope is not going to cut it with the rest of the holiday clutter. Neither will one that arrives at the height of the season with everything else. Plan for your direct mail to stand out in the mailbox and arrive in plenty of time for recipients to respond.

Because the hectic pace of the holidays starts to slow down the week between Christmas and New Year’s, your message may resonate more at this time. Email donors at least twice during the last week of the year, with short, sweet and compelling messages that make it easy to give online at the last minute.

Ensure that your website is optimized for mobile and that your homepage bears a bold but tasteful appeal for year-end giving. Work on your auto-responder message now so that it is warm and conversational, with a heartfelt response rather than a robotic one.